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What Actually Happens If You Try To Land On Mars — Transcript

by Flippo Explains · 2,314 words · 355 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00You have been falling toward Mars for 7
0:02months, and today the falling finally
0:04becomes a problem. For most of the trip,
0:06Mars was a dot. Then it was a coin. Now
0:09it fills the entire window, rusty orange
0:11and dented with craters, and it is
0:13getting bigger in a way that feels
0:15personal.
0:16You are strapped into a seat inside a
0:18capsule roughly the size of a small
0:19kitchen. Your helmet is sealed. Your
0:21gloves are on. Three other crew members
0:24sit beside you, and nobody is saying
0:26much because everyone on board has read
0:28the same history. A large share of all
0:30the machines humans have ever sent to
0:31land on Mars did not land. They arrived.
0:35There is a difference, and the
0:36difference is usually a crater. Those
0:38were robots. You are not a robot. You
0:41are the first person to attempt this,
0:43which is a great line for a history book
0:45and a terrible feeling for a stomach.
0:48Here is the first thing that makes this
0:49strange. Earth is so far away that a
0:52radio signal, moving at the speed of
0:54light, can take anywhere from a few
0:55minutes to over 20 minutes to arrive,
0:58depending on where the two planets are
1:00in their orbits. Today, the delay is
1:02around 12 minutes each way. The landing
1:05itself will be over in far less time
1:07than that. So, when mission control
1:09finally hears that you have hit the top
1:10of the Martian atmosphere, you will
1:12already be on the ground. Or you will
1:14already be something else. Either way,
1:17nobody on Earth can help. Nobody can
1:20talk you through it. Nobody can press an
1:22emergency button in time.
1:24The computer flies. You watch. And you
1:26try very hard not to think about the
1:28fact that your entire future is
1:30currently a piece of software.
1:32The capsule turns, pointing its wide,
1:34flat heat shield toward the planet.
1:37Outside the window, the stars stay
1:39perfectly still. Nothing feels different
1:41yet. You are moving at more than 12,000
1:43miles per hour, but in the silence of
1:45space, it feels like floating in a
1:47parking lot. Then you touch the
1:49atmosphere. It starts as a faint hiss,
1:52almost polite, a slight weight in your
1:54chest. Loose dust drifts toward the
1:57floor for the first time in 7 months,
1:59which is how you know something has
2:00changed. Now for the part that surprises
2:03almost everyone, the Martian atmosphere
2:05is thin, very thin. At the surface, the
2:08air pressure is less than 1% of what you
2:10are used to on Earth. You might expect
2:12that to make landing easy. Less air,
2:15less trouble.
2:16It does not work like that.
2:18The air is too thin to slow you down
2:20gently, but at this speed, it is more
2:22than thick enough to set you on fire.
2:24The gas in front of the heat shield
2:26cannot get out of the way fast enough.
2:28It gets squeezed and heated until it
2:30glows. Through the tiny window, the dark
2:33sky turns orange, then a bright searing
2:35white as a sheet of superheated gas
2:37wraps around the capsule. The heat
2:39shield underneath you is now hotter than
2:41a pottery kiln. It is slowly burning
2:43away on purpose, layer by layer,
2:46carrying the heat off with it. That is
2:48its whole job. It is designed to be
2:50destroyed so that you are not. And then
2:52the weight arrives. For 7 months, your
2:54body has lived without it. Your blood
2:56spread more evenly through your body.
2:58Your muscles got lazy. Your bones
3:00quietly lost some of their strength.
3:03Your inner ear stopped bothering to
3:04track which way is down. Now the capsule
3:07is breaking so hard that you are pressed
3:09into your seat several times heavier
3:11than you ever felt on Earth. Your arms
3:13feel like they have been filled with wet
3:15sand. Breathing becomes a deliberate
3:17act. The edges of your vision can start
3:20to dim as blood struggles to reach your
3:22head. The seat was shaped around your
3:23body for exactly this reason, but
3:26knowing that does not make it feel any
3:27less like being sat on by the planet.
3:30Someone on the crew says something. You
3:32do not answer. Answering would require
3:34air. Slowly, the glow outside fades. The
3:38pressure eases. You are through the
3:40worst of the heat, and you are
3:41dramatically slower than before. You are
3:44also still falling faster than a bullet.
3:46A bang shakes the capsule.
3:48A parachute rips out of the top of the
3:50vehicle and snaps open while you are
3:52still moving faster than the speed of
3:53sound. The capsule jerks upward hard
3:56enough that your helmet knocks against
3:57the headrest. The ride instantly becomes
3:59rougher, swinging and shuddering like a
4:02very expensive elevator having an
4:03emotional moment.
4:05And here is the next unpleasant
4:06surprise. For a small robot, a parachute
4:09gets you a long way. For you, it barely
4:12helps.
4:13A spacecraft carrying humans needs air,
4:15food, water, medical supplies, living
4:18space, and everything required to keep
4:20four people alive on another planet.
4:23That makes it enormously heavy. In air
4:26this thin, even a giant parachute cannot
4:28slow something that heavy enough. If you
4:30trusted the parachute alone, you would
4:32hit the ground at a speed that turns a
4:34landing into an excavation.
4:36So, the next step is the one that makes
4:38your palms sweat inside your gloves.
4:41The heat shield drops away. It falls
4:43below you, spinning toward the ground, a
4:45scorched dinner plate that just saved
4:47your life, and is now being abandoned
4:49without a thank you. For the first time,
4:51cameras and radar underneath the lander
4:53can see the surface.
4:55The radar starts measuring the distance
4:57to the ground. Numbers tick down on your
4:59display faster than you would like.
5:01Then, the parachute lets go.
5:03For a second, you are in freefall again.
5:05Your stomach lifts. Your brain registers
5:08this as a very bad idea.
5:10Then, the engines ignite. The whole
5:12lander roars and shakes as rocket
5:14engines fire straight down toward Mars,
5:16pushing against your fall.
5:17You are now descending on a column of
5:19fire. You are not landing on the planet
5:21so much as negotiating with it.
5:23The computer is working furiously. It
5:25compares what the cameras see against
5:27the maps it carries. It notices a field
5:29of boulders directly below. It tilts the
5:32lander and slides you sideways through
5:34the thin pink air, hunting for flat
5:36ground. You feel every correction in
5:38your spine.
5:39The ground is close now, close enough to
5:42see individual rocks.
5:44Close enough to see them start to move.
5:46The rocket exhaust hits the surface and
5:48blasts up an enormous cloud of fine red
5:50dust. Pebbles fly outward in every
5:52direction. Within seconds, the windows
5:54are brown and the cameras show nothing
5:56but swirling rust. The radar still sees
5:59the ground, but you do not.
6:01You are dropping blind into a storm you
6:02made yourself.
6:04The engines throttle, the descent slows
6:06to a crawl.
6:07A thud travels up through the landing
6:08legs and into your seat. The lander
6:11rocks once, twice, then it settles. The
6:14engines cut off.
6:15For the first time in 7 months, the
6:17capsule does not move. Outside, the dust
6:20cloud begins to drift away slowly and
6:22lazily, because on Mars, nothing falls
6:24quite as fast as it should. Through the
6:26dirty glass, you see a flat plane of
6:28orange stones stretching to a low
6:30horizon. Nobody has ever seen this view
6:32with their own eyes before. You are the
6:34first. You send a message to Earth,
6:37something short, something that will
6:38probably be printed on mugs one day. And
6:41then you wait. 12 minutes for the
6:43message to arrive. 12 more minutes for
6:45the reply to come back. Almost half an
6:47hour after the most important moment of
6:49your life, you finally hear people on
6:51another planet cheering.
6:53If you're enjoying this video, please
6:55hit the subscribe button. It genuinely
6:57helps keep the channel alive.
6:59Now comes the part most people never
7:01think about. You landed.
7:03Congratulations. You now have to survive
7:05having landed. You unbuckle and try to
7:08stand up. Mars has only about 38% of
7:11Earth's gravity. You should feel light.
7:14Instead, you feel awful. After 7 months
7:17of floating, your body has to relearn
7:19weight almost from scratch. Your balance
7:21system is confused, and the room seems
7:24to tilt when you turn your head. Your
7:26heart and blood vessels are not used to
7:27pumping blood upward against gravity, so
7:30standing up quickly can leave you dizzy
7:32and light-headed. Your legs, weakened
7:34from months without use, may feel shaky
7:37and unreliable.
7:38Astronauts returning to Earth after long
7:40missions are often helped out of their
7:41capsule by a team on the ground.
7:44There is no team here. There is a floor,
7:46three equally wobbly crewmates, and a
7:48checklist.
7:50So, you sit back down.
7:51The first hours on Mars are not a
7:53triumphant march across the surface.
7:55They are four exhausted people slowly
7:57getting used to the idea of weight
7:58again.
7:59Eventually, you want to go outside. This
8:01is where Mars stops being impressive and
8:04starts being hostile.
8:05You cannot just open the hatch.
8:07The air pressure outside is so low that,
8:10without a pressurized suit, you would
8:11lose consciousness within seconds. The
8:14air that is there is mostly carbon
8:15dioxide. Even if the pressure were fine,
8:18there would be nothing useful to
8:19breathe.
8:20It is also cold. On a good day near the
8:22equator, the afternoon ground can get
8:24surprisingly mild.
8:26But, once the sun goes down,
8:27temperatures can plunge far below
8:29anything you have experienced outside a
8:31freezer. Often colder than the coldest
8:33winters in Antarctica.
8:35So, you climb into your suit, seal the
8:37airlock, wait for the pressure to drop,
8:39and open the outer door.
8:41You step off the ladder. Your boot
8:42presses into the dust and leaves a crisp
8:44print. It is the first human footprint
8:46on another planet. And because Mars has
8:48no rain and only gentle winds, it could
8:51last for quite a while. The sky
8:53surprises you. It is not blue.
8:55It is a hazy butterscotch color tinted
8:58by dust hanging in the air. The sun
9:00looks smaller and weaker than at home.
9:02And later, when the sun sets, you notice
9:04something truly strange. The sky around
9:07the sunset turns blue, the exact
9:09opposite of Earth.
9:10Somewhere low in the sky, a tiny bright
9:13point appears.
9:14That is Earth. Every person you have
9:17ever known is on that dot. Back inside,
9:19you notice the next problem. The dust
9:21came with you. Martian dust is extremely
9:24fine. It clings to everything. It gets
9:26into zippers, seals, joints, and hinges.
9:30And the soil contains salts called
9:31perchlorates, which are harmful if you
9:33breathe or swallow them. So, every trip
9:35outside now ends with careful cleaning
9:38because the planet you just conquered
9:39would like to quietly move into your
9:41living room.
9:42Then there is the radiation you cannot
9:44see. On Earth, a thick atmosphere and a
9:47strong magnetic field shield you from
9:48much of the high-energy radiation from
9:50space. Mars has lost its global magnetic
9:53field and its air is too thin to provide
9:55much protection. Every day you spend
9:57here, you absorb more radiation than you
10:00would at home. It does not hurt. You do
10:02not feel it. That is exactly what makes
10:05it a long-term concern and why your crew
10:07may end up piling soil around the
10:09habitat or spending as much time as
10:11possible under shelter. A few weeks
10:13later, the horizon changes color. A dust
10:16storm is coming. Most are local. But
10:19occasionally, storms on Mars grow until
10:21they cover huge parts of the planet,
10:23sometimes the entire globe, and the dust
10:26can darken the sky for weeks. The storm
10:28itself cannot knock you over. The air is
10:30too thin to push hard. The real danger
10:33is quieter. The dust blocks sunlight. If
10:36your base depends on solar panels, the
10:38power starts dropping day after day.
10:40Heating, air recycling, and
10:42communications all need that power. You
10:44start switching things off. The crew
10:46huddles in the warmest part of the
10:47habitat. You find yourself watching a
10:50battery indicator the way a sailor
10:52watches the sky.
10:53And now you finally understand the
10:55biggest catch of all. You cannot just go
10:57home. Earth and Mars are constantly
10:59moving around the sun at different
11:01speeds. The good windows for traveling
11:03between them only line up roughly every
11:0526 months. Miss the window and the trip
11:08becomes far longer or simply impossible
11:10with the fuel you have. So, you stay for
11:13more than a year, maybe much longer. And
11:15even when the window opens, you have to
11:17launch off Mars, which means a rocket, a
11:20working launch system, and enough fuel.
11:23Many mission plans would not even bring
11:25all that fuel from Earth. They would try
11:27to manufacture it on Mars, pulling
11:29carbon dioxide from the thin air and
11:31turning it into rocket propellant one
11:33slow chemical reaction at a time.
11:36In other words, your ticket home may be
11:38made out of the planet you are trying to
11:39leave.
11:41So, what actually happens if you try to
11:42land on Mars?
11:44If everything goes right, you survive a
11:46fall through fire, a parachute that is
11:48not enough, and a rocket-powered drop
11:50into a dust cloud you created yourself.
11:52You become one of the first humans to
11:54stand on another world.
11:56And then you discover that landing was
11:57only the entrance exam.
11:59You are now living on a planet where the
12:01air cannot be breathed, the nights could
12:03freeze you solid, the dust is toxic, the
12:06radiation never stops, and the nearest
12:08help is months away.
12:10Every single day you stay alive, there
12:11is a small engineering miracle, which
12:13raises the only question that really
12:15matters.
12:16Now that you know what it takes, would
12:18you still climb into that seat?

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